Stirling Castle wins best website at Communicators in Business Scotland Awards

Media Releases

The Stirling Castle website has been named best website at the recent Communicators in Business Scotland awards only 5 months after it was launched. The awards, which recognise excellence within the communications industry were held at the Radisson in Glasgow and saw the Historic Scotland e- communications team, who run the website, pick up the award for the second year running. The team won the previous year for the Edinburgh Castle website.

Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture today announced that Historic Scotland is giving a three year cash commitment of more than Â£360,000 in order to help support the Built Environment Forum Scotland, (BEFS), become the intermediary body to represent the historic environment through the Voluntary Sector Funding Programme.

Historic Scotland has invited every local authority in Scotland to join a planning scheme to improve and speed up the process of dealing with certain types of applications affecting category B listed buildings. This is part of a range of reforms aimed at strengthening the partnership between Historic Scotland and local authorities across Scotland. It follows a successful three month pilot scheme where Perth and Kinross, Glasgow City and the City of Edinburgh councils were able to issue listed building consent for B listed buildings without the need to consult Historic Scotland. The pilot found that consents were issued more quickly and in line with policy. On average, pilot applications were determined 27 days more quickly than non-pilot category B cases. Just over half of the pilot cases were resolved within eight weeks.

Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop welcomed the three millionth visitor to go through the doors of one of Historic Scotland’s ticketed attractions in the 2009 – 2010 season. Historic Scotland manages 345 properties on behalf of Scottish Ministers across the country. During the Summer season, Historic Scotland’s Top 10 sites enjoyed a 9% increase on this time last year, with visitor numbers growing by 7% overall. Edinburgh Castle was up by 8% during this period, Urquhart Castle’s number of visitors increased by 9% whereas Stirling Castle’s numbers were up by 6%, during a major refurbishment for the Palace project. The Minister presented Joyce Churchill, 76, from Nova Scotia, a first time visitor to Scotland, with a quaich, Scotland’s cup of friendship, at Edinburgh Castle, its flagship property, to mark the occasion.

Historic Scotland has teamed up with the Played in Britain book series and Glasgow City Council to produce an exciting new publication – Played in Glasgow. Written by Ged O’Brien, the book outlines the city’s sporting heritage, from the birth of association football and the impressive stadiums built there, once the largest in the world, to the sporting clubs and racetracks. The publication also examines the cultural impact of sport in the city and is backed up with historic photographs and maps, charting the main sporting sites.